Of Ponderings and Paladins
by QueenBeePress
Summary: A bunch of one shots based on the paladins, inspired by the stupid things my best friends and I do in the college physics lounge. Any requests? Send me a PM or leave a review.
1. Homesick

**I wanted a little more angst from Lance's POV at the party, so I looked up the photo of his family (the one he's thinking of during the mind melding training) and wrote this terribly depressing tidbit...**

"I miss… my mom's hugs…" Lance felt the agonizing cold creep through his suit and send shivers down his spine as he reminded himself of the lack of familial warmth on the castle. He'd been hiding his homesickness so well that he almost believed himself until the others brought it up.

Lance left the party quickly, not wanting to celebrate when all he could think of was his family back home. Images of his immediate family ran through his head. His mother, sister, brother, they'd lost their dad only a few years ago, what did they think happened to him?

He didn't want to admit that tears poured down his face as he found himself on the bridge.

He could imagine now, the whole family gathered together trying to accept the loss, all eleven of them.

Slowly, Lance tried to think of happy memories. Goofing around, teasing his siblings Carlos and Madison. Listening to Mama sing as she cooked and danced around the kitchen.

Family parties for birthdays, anything that could make the blue paladin laugh somehow turned into their faces of fear and sorrow.

"Just like losing dad," Lance croaked softly to himself as he tried to wipe the tears from his face.

Coran came in soon after, and the cheery blue paladin played off his sorrows well before everything exploded.


	2. Brothers

**My thoughts on how Shiro and Keith know each other and Keith's reaction to having Shiro home safe and sound-ish.**

With the others chilling in his living room, Keith studied the sleeping face currently on his pillow. Shiro had been gone for so long, Keith had thought he was dead! Yet, here he was, and despite the arm, the scar, and the fact that his hair was the same color as an eighty-year old's, Keith couldn't be more relieved.

"Don't! They're coming! You have to understand!"

Shiro's outburst made Keith jump, but he was quickly in front of his surrogate brother, trying to calm him down.

"Takashi, hey, it's me, it's Keith, remember?"

Shiro blinked carefully and studied Keith's face for a minute before smiling, "you're safe."

"I'm safe! I thought you were dead! I thought you were…." And suddenly Keith was crying, when did he become so emotional?

Shiro smiled and hugged his little brother, "yeah, cadet, I know. I'm here though, I'm right here, and I have something I need your help with."

Keith didn't let go of Shiro, "you do?"

"Trust me, we're going to need all the help we can get, sound like a plan?"  
Keith grinned, a rare sight really, and it made Shiro smile too.

"Dude, you came back from the dead, of course it's a fucking plan!"


	3. Fearless Leader

**So I removed the original third chapter because it was atrocious, here's something to make up for it.**

 **For some context, I'm really excited about Matt's return, and thought of this stupidly cute scene after a violent murder occurred in the Physics Lounge (literally, my friend did this to me and I was practically crying).**

"Shiro, come on, you need to sleep," Matt whined as the paladins returned to the bridge after a day of flight training. Everyone was exhausted, but none more so than the Black Paladin himself.

"I slept just fine thanks," Shiro crossed his arms, sending a warning glance at the Ambassador for the Knights Against Zarkon (KAZ).

"For like, two hours, dude," he hissed in response, "do I have to drag you back to your room?"

The other paladins as well as Allura and Coran were studying the pair from a cautious distance. Shiro and Matt argued on occasion, but it usually took the form of a debate. This argument seemed to take on a different tone.

As if confirming their suspicions, Matt seemingly pounced forward, tackling Shiro with a violent burst of brute force.

Shiro met him with only a loud exclamation and suddenly, laughter?

It was the kind of whole-hearted laughter that nobody had heard out of Shiro, not in the past year at least. Shiro's laugh rang out through the bridge and when the other's got over their jaw-to-the-floor shock, they were grinning from ear to ear.

"Matt! Sto... ahahaha... stop! Haha... Please?" Shiro's pleas were entirely fruitless as Matt continued his relentless assault of Shiro's sides and armpits. The "fearless leader" was reduced to nothing but a puddle of giggles and squeals.

"I'm not stopping unless you agree to get some sleep, Takashi," Matt mused with a devilish grin.

"No! I... busy... there's hahaha... work..."

"Then I won't let up, you're only making it worse for yourself!"  
Now thoroughly entertained by the hilarious assault on their leader, the younger paladins simply sat back to watch. Matt had just given them some excellent information that they were more than happy to put to use.

Keith was already plotting.

"Okay! Okay... Mercy..." Shiro huffed between giggles and... oh goodness, was that a snort?

Pidge began downloading the security footage.

Satisfied with Shiro's acceptance of his fate, Matt sat back and grinned. The Black Paladin quickly recovered, and after a moment, sat up and pushed his bangs out of his face, "I hate you so much right now."

"I'm okay with that," the older Holt sibling answered with a shrug.

Lance smirked, "wow, Shiro, who knew you were holding out on us?"

Even Shiro's typical "dad-glare" didn't work in that particular moment, and Lance savored that effect.

"You're telling me none of you figured that out?" Matt asked, feigning bewilderment, "he's super ticklish, how do you think I ever got him to agree to anything?"

"This is a normal thing?" Hunk sounded genuinely intrigued.

"Oh definitely, he's especially vulnerable when it comes to his sides," Matt chimed just before Shiro shoved him over.

"Traitors, all of you," Shiro groaned, still, he was glad it'd happened. The fearless leader of Voltron hadn't laughed like that in a long time.


End file.
